Brazilian FM warns against foreign meddling in Venezuela

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota has warned against foreign meddling in the internal affairs of Venezuela.

The Brazilian foreign minister gave the warning on Saturday.

The United States and the European Union have called for vote recount and have not formally recognized Nicolas Maduro’s victory in Venezuela’s presidential election.

“The era of interference by powers from the hemisphere or other regions is outdated and I hope it will not come back,” Patriota stated.

“We have confidence in Venezuelan institutions… The important thing is for Venezuela society to seek reconciliation because there are many challenges despite the progress made in the past few years,” Patriota said.

On April 19, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff joined other regional and international leaders, including Iran and some Arab countries, in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, for the inauguration of Maduro.

Socialist Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner with 50.8 percent of the votes against 49.0 percent for the opposition leader, Henrique Capriles.

Capriles said he did not recognize the official results, claiming that there were more than 300,000 incidents from the poll that would need to be examined.

Since the electoral authority declared Maduro the winner, the opposition has staged several violent protests, which has left at least seven people dead and over 60 others injured.

On March 8, Maduro became Venezuela’s acting president, following the death of late President Hugo Chavez, who lost a two-year-long battle with cancer on March 5. Maduro has promised to continue the socialist policies of the former leader.